[1][2][3] On March 22, 1925, Syracuse Mayor John Henry Walrath announced the gift of land consisting of 12.1 acres, adjacent to Burnet Park by Adelaide Pass and family.

It would be an outdoor museum of woody plants displayed for educational and horticultural purposes, to serve as a demonstration ground for students, homeowners, commercial growers, and horticulturalists.

Her November 10, 1926 obituary describes her as a benefactor of worthy charity and invariably associated with every movement designed to increase health, comfort, and happiness of the less fortunate element of the community.

Establishment of a shrub garden and erection of a comfort station and work room would complete the project.

In many cases expansions of parks was funded by the federal government which placed recreation facility development near the top of its expenditure list.

Money literally poured into subsidized recreation park design and construction, often through WPA projects.

Syracuse's century of progress dating from the arrival of the Erie Canal came to an end with the stock market crash in 1929.

During the 1930s, the city's population decreased slightly, businesses suffered, the tax base declined and unemployment grew rapidly.

In addition the formal shrub and hedge display section 5C of the original plan was not included in either of those appendices.

[32][33] In December 1936 William Gould Vinal, who had been on the faculty of the NYS College of Forestry in 1925 when plans for the arboretum were announced, wrote an article on the educational benefits of CNY parks.

Every indication is that by 1938 the public had showed little interest in the partially planted arboretum and for that reason it was used almost exclusively as a park.

The Planning Parks and Recreation Commission which, in the fall of 1927, strongly recommended that each year a substantial amount be included in the bond issue for maintenance [42] was dissolved in 1932.

[47] "In May 1967 a rehabilitation project of the arboretum was initiated by the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry Botany Club under the guidance of Prof. Edwin H. Ketchledge and with the collaboration of James Heath, Commissioner of the Parks and Recreation Department.

Central to this project was the vision of re-instating the arboretum's functional mission of educational and horticultural display.

Despite an enthusiastic start, the rehabilitation project, was abandoned a year and a half later in the wake of repeated incidents of vandalism.

[49] It was the wish of the Men's Garden Club of Syracuse to commemorate past members with memorial tree plantings.

Contributions by the Garden Club were for the most part common street trees that added very little interest to the plant collection.

The extent to which this intention was carried out remains unverified since no records were found of any additional plantings during this period.

During the mid-80s restoration Dick Case of the Syracuse Herald Journal wrote in a July 8, 1985 column "If there is a project worth doing, it is a campaign to make the James Pass Arboretum what it was meant to be."

Tessier's statement conflicts with the assessments made by the authors of REVISIONING AN HISTORIC LANDSCAPE THE JAMES PASS ARBORETUM and PROTECTED SITE APPLICATION PART C, SECTION VII ZONING RULES AND REGULATIONS for Syracuse Landmark Preservation Board, the 1991 Walmsely Survey and the city's 2001 Community Forest Restoration Project Resource Guide all of whom state that it is likely that only a portion was planted .

There were conflicting deductions in the survey but among the observations was that "Although this 'park' has lost a significant number of species, it is still a pleasing landscape with above-average diversity of trees which makes it an interesting collection.

[56] "The project proved to be the most effective effort to date to restore the arboretum's original mission of public education."

[61] On November 30, 1994, just four months after the application [62] Gary Gerew of the Syracuse Herald Journal wrote that the Syracuse Parks Department and the City Department of Community Development received approval of the city planning commission to designate five parks as protected historic landmarks.

"[65] Michael Grimm and a group of fellow New York State Arborists "took their saws and bucket trucks to Pass to give some hurting and hoary trees much-needed care.

[67][68] His experience in the Arnold Arboretum in Boston, where he was a "Friend of the Arnold Arboretum" [69] and Highland Park in Rochester, where he was a member of the" Highland Park Conservancy",[70] led him to believe that the people of Syracuse had been deprived of the kind of enrichment that was enjoyed by the people of Boston and Rochester.

On a number of occasions he received correspondence from the Parks Department, Community Groups and other government entities which identified him as the Steward of the James Pass Arboretum a position that he never sought.

[75] [76] [77] Once cleared of woody invasive he would weed those areas while working to establish ground cover to discourage the regeneration of feral growth.

While they expressed doubt that they had many members with the skill and knowledge to help with much they would at least annually rake leaves and pick up the area so that it would look better.

By the end of 2006 the association was able to convince Commissioner of Parks Patrick Driscoll that they were better suited to beautify the 'park' than Mr Regin and that he was not sufficiently supportive of beautification.

Develop the living collection of the arboretum by purchase and propagation of new plant material using the 1926 Smith-Howard plan as a guide.